Helping Those In Need
Twister Aftermath: An Impossible Clean-up
By Ken Hulme
The 700 Club
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CBN.com — On April 9th 2015, a powerful tornado ripped through Rochelle, Illinois, leaving Bradd Kettlesons’ neighborhood decimated.
That evening, Bradd’s daughter Abbey was watching the news and worried about her parents. “We heard the tornado siren start going off. We were watching [the warnings] on TV and the line was [headed] directly for my parents’ home.”
Unfortunately, the Kettlesons’ home was severely damaged by this EF4 tornado.
“The whole neighbor’s house blew into our house. Their drywall embedded in our bricks. The whole roof came up and then went back down,” said Bradd.
In the days following the disaster, Bradd and his daughter were overwhelmed and didn’t know where to begin with the cleanup.
Abbey said, “It kind of takes your breath away. When am I going to wake up from this nightmare? It turns out it’s reality.”
That’s when Operation Blessing showed up with an army of volunteers. Abbey and Bradd were overwhelmed with the response.
Abbey said, “They packed up all 2200 square feet of the house, labeled it all, and took inventory for us, and loaded it all into the storage pods.”
Bradd Kettleson, a former ironworker, had always been the provider for his family and was not used to receiving outside help.
“My dad kind of, just looked at me and he said, ‘That’s what tears you up the most, is just seeing all these people that want to come and help us.’” Abbey said.
Bradd continued on by saying, “Yeah, I’ve never had a whole lot of, help, you know. That’s what gets you…seeing everybody just come together.”
The help the Kettlesons received from Operation Blessing has helped them think of natural disasters in a whole new way.
“We just can’t say thank you enough. It was just mind-blowing. It makes us want to start to volunteer and be a part of Operation Blessing,” said Abbey
Brad expressed his appreciation by saying, “I’ll be there helping on the next one, even if I got to drive. It doesn’t matter.”
Through tears Abbey said, “From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Without you guys, we’d still have a huge mess and we’d have no direction in how to clean it up.”
Running out of words, Brad ended our conversation with six powerful words: “Operation Blessing. It’s been a blessing.”
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